"Today News" came back from removal: an old news brand changed its package name and reclaimed the top 10 of Brazil's news chart within two months

In Oct 13, a Brazilian user gave a five-star rating on Google Play to an app called "Notícias de Hoje" (Today's News), saying they were 70 years old, retired, and then going on about Silvio Santos. In Nov 6, the app ranked #8 in Brazil's free News Magazines chart and #14 in Japan, with under 50k cumulative installs worldwide. It looks like a fresh new product, but it's actually an old brand that relaunched under a new package name. Below, I'll explain who is behind it, how it came back, where the money comes from, and why you probably shouldn't follow it.

What it is

A news aggregator app: local and global news, breaking alerts, interest-based recommendations, and weather on the side. The Brazilian store page lists six selling points ("latest news," "breaking alerts," "personalized feed," "local and global headlines," "weather," "clean reading experience"), none of which are new. The store labels it as containing ads and offering in-app purchases priced from $1.99 to $39.99, which we infer is for ad removal.

It names itself in each country using the words locals would actually search: "News Today: Local & Alerts" in English, "Notícias de Hoje" in Brazil, and "今日の話題:地域の最新情報" in Japan. The developer is listed as NEWSDELIVER LIMITED, a Hong Kong company with a Chinese team behind it.

It isn't new: the old package was removed, and the new one took its place

The name "今日の話題" existed before. The old package was com.novanews.android.breakingnews. Japan's app data site APPLION recorded it with 1M+ downloads and 4,200+ ratings, and it had a release as late as Jul 21 1.17.0. Today its Play link returns 404 (11-06 verified). By Jun 3, NEWSDELIVER's "Notícias de Hoje" was already ranked #22 on Brazil's news chart.

In Aug 25, the new package com.breaking.android.newstoday launched, with the name, description structure, and headlines for each country all copied over. From the outside, there's no way to tell whether the old package was removed by Google, lost to an account issue, or migrated voluntarily.

This brand has a track record. In October 2024, while Snopes was debunking the rumor that "Steve Harvey died in a car accident," it found a paid ad on Meta reading "Steve Harvey Dead? 'Family Feud' Fans React…" Clicking through led to a prompt to download three news apps: the first was called News Today, and the other two were Daily News: Local & Alerts and Local News: Breaking & Latest. Snopes said these apps came from Chinese developers.

Behind it is an account network

NEWSDELIVER isn't a single person's operation. At least three developer accounts run the same product:

According to AppBrain, NEWSDELIVER has been active since 2022, with about 30M cumulative installs. Sensor Tower lists 22 apps under it, 13 of which are no longer live, many split by country (Korea, India, Indonesia, the UK, France, Arabic-speaking markets). Splitting packages, swapping packages, and swapping accounts is routine for this team.

How it grew

The numbers climb in steps (Google Play installs):

Over 7 days it rose 13,716, and two of those days alone account for 12k, while the rest of the days only add a few hundred. This step shape usually means bursts of paid acquisition or push-driven pulls, which organic growth does not look like. AppGoblin found 13 ad network SDKs and 3 attribution SDKs in the package. Shipping an attribution SDK usually means you're buying installs (inferred; no ad creatives for this package were found).

On the charts, from 10-29 to 11-06 it was there every day: Brazil news chart ranks 4–8, Japan 9–15, Mexico 22–35, US 81–139. It only charted in the news category, not the overall chart. There is no online discussion: no media coverage, nobody on X mentions it, and searching TikTok for its Portuguese name turns up no related videos.

Why Brazil and Japan specifically

The news category chart has a low bar. With under 50k cumulative global installs and a thousand or two a day, you can make the top 8 in Brazil and the top 15 in Japan. Once charted, the position itself pulls in some organic installs.

The name is the search term. "Notícias de Hoje" and "今日の話題" are phrases locals type straight into search when they want news. One package showing a different name in each country captures both search and charts.

The team has ready-made assets. An established brand, localized titles per country, ad monetization code, a paid acquisition team, and older apps still adding several thousand to tens of thousands of users a week. (No direct evidence was found that they use push notifications to move old users to the new packages.)

Where the money comes from, and how users see it

Revenue is mostly ads. Third-party estimates vary widely: Sensor Tower estimates 5k–50k downloads last month and under $5k in revenue; AppGoblin estimates about 13k monthly actives and under $10k monthly revenue. These are model estimates, and this is only one number in the matrix, so total matrix revenue is unknown.

Brazilian user reviews are mostly two or three words: "ótimo", "muito bom", "bom". One five-star review raised a practical request: "The only suggestion is to let us set times when we don't want notifications." The only one-star review was about ads:

Entupido de anúncios… Você lê ou fecha um anúncio e outros aparecem. — Stuffed with ads. You read or close one ad and others pop up. (Brazil, 10-29)

The ratings look odd too. The Brazil store page shows 4.8 stars (127 ratings, 11-06); the US store's rating has fallen from 10-29 to 4.19 and then to 3.76. In the rating breakdown, 1-star has 21, 2-star has 14, 4-star has 21, and 5-star has 65, while 3-star has stayed at 0. The common explanation is that the app first shows a "Are you happy?" prompt and only sends happy users to the store to rate it (inference, unverified).

Who it's competing with

Its store description is nearly word-for-word identical to YING LIANG, EASE, and Build4world. The ones competing for this spot aren't legitimate media, but several going-global teams running the same business.

If it were you

In short: worth knowing about, but I wouldn't copy it. It got back onto the charts thanks to an older brand with 1M downloads, a team with 30M cumulative installs, and three developer accounts. You don't have any of those three, and the product itself has no angle you could execute better.

Who it's for: teams already running a "news/utility + paid acquisition + ad monetization" model, with ready-made feed code and an ad mediation setup, who can calculate Brazil and Japan acquisition costs and per-user ad revenue, and just want another slot.

Who it's not for: indie developers hoping to win on the product; people who've never run paid ads or tuned ad mediation; anyone who can't afford account risk. This category constantly swaps packages and splits accounts, and creatives in it have included rumors, which Google Play and Meta both watch closely.

How to approach it: the takeaway is two ideas, not this app. First, "one package, a local common term as the name in each country," to capture search and category charts. Second, go after low-barrier categories where you can get a ranking, rather than crowded categories dominated by giants. If you do build in news, go after what it does poorly: reviews ask for "quiet hours," and some users are driven off by ads. An app that keeps ads restrained, lets users control notifications, and covers one type of local information in one country (for example, public service or water and power outage alerts in a Brazilian state) has at least one reason to keep users that they can articulate.

How to acquire users: start with a very small budget on Meta or Google to buy one or two thousand Brazilian users, then check whether D-7 retention and per-user ad revenue cover acquisition cost. If they don't, stop. Use the way locals actually phrase things in store titles.

When to move: there is no clear window. This slot has been taken in turn by similar teams. Not crowded today doesn't mean it won't be next month.

Signs you've misread it: ① If it drops out of the top 15 in Brazil's news chart before the end of November and installs stop growing, it confirms this was a paid acquisition burst that ends when spend stops, so don't follow it. ② Conversely, if it stops the step-like jumps and still gets steady organic installs while its rating stabilizes, then Brazil's news category alone can support an ordinary aggregator app, and a version with fewer ads is worth building seriously. ③ If two or three more clone apps of the same template join the top 15 in Brazil or Japan's news charts, the slot has been carved up by the matrix.